Pranks Not Allowed
by Malgraw
Summary: At first, pranking Nova seemed like a good idea to Peter. That is, until Nova gets seriously pissed at Peter for taking his helmet while Sam was in the shower and hiding it away. After another misunderstanding, their relationship improves, with a few awkward moments thrown in for good measure. SpideyNova.
1. I'm locking the door from now on

A/N:

First of all, first fanfic EVER. So be gentle ok?. There may be some OOC but I'll try my best to keep it down to a minimum.

I'm making a sort of mix between Comic Nova and Cartoon Nova. A few spoilers for the comics btw. Here are some changes:

Sam's eyes are blue and his Nova helmet is black instead of gold. Sam's origin and a bit of his story is the same as the comic, up until a certain point. He fought with the Guardians of the Galaxy for a year and a half, in total.

The events of avx happened in a slightly smaller scale (destruction levels on earth not as high) and everyone of the team wasn't there, except for Nova. (Avengers vs X-Men, if you haven't read it, you should. It's interesting. Just read everything in order please, not the whole story is in the avx-only comic.)

The Watcher is dead (spoiler).

Everyone on the team is 17.

PS: Some of the chronology of the "episodes" and stuff will be a bit broken. Maybe. Possibly. I think. Just ignore it. This is an AU of course so pay it no mind. I mean, if it wasn't an AU then Sam and everyone would be the same right? Right?

**Chapter 1 - I'm locking the door from now on**

It was Friday night and the team was relaxing in the living room of Aunt May's house. Ever since the helicarrier had gone down, the team had been staying in Peter's Aunt May's house, much to Peter's initial dismay. He was sort of enjoying having more people in the house, as opposed to just him and Aunt May.

That usually meant that his Aunt May spent most of her time alone (when she wasn't going in any of her wild adventures). But with the team there, she had a lot more company. And, even though he didn't like to admit, most of that attention and company came from Sam of all people. Peter had been worried Sam was going to drive aunt May insane but, believe it or not, they were getting along as if they were the oldest friends.

He was grateful Sam was spending so much time with his aunt but that didn't stop him from being his "usual self" around Peter. So, grateful or not, Peter had to have his revenge. Nothing big but amusing nonetheless.

Sam took his helmet everywhere he went. Even to the bathroom! Peter knew that helmet was the only thing that gave Sam his powers but he always seems WAY too overly attached to it. So, as you might imagine, it was the perfect way to prank him.

While Sam was showering and everyone was watching TV downstairs, Peter snuck into the bathroom as quietly as possible. Making an effort not to look in the direction of the humming figure in the shower, Peter looked for Sam's helmet.

"Aha!" Peter whispered with a grin. It was sitting on top of his new set of clothes on the toilet seat.

With care not to activate anything (after all, Peter knew next to nothing about how the helmet worked and didn't want to risk activating some sort of alarm or something like that), Peter took the helmet and made a quick getaway, as quiet as he could.

Walking away to his bedroom, Peter turned the helmet around a few times in attempts to get a good look at it. He wasn't as stupid as to try put it on (THAT would definitely sound the alarm on the house).

"Hmm I wonder where I should put this. Not my room, too obvious. Sam already sleeps there."

He walked back and forth on the corridor upstairs trying to think of the place to put it.

"Can't be too obvious… Some place that's easy to find yet not somewhere you go take your first look. Let's see…"

One of their teammate's rooms? Nah too obvious. Aunt May's? Ew no. Basement? Nah, it would be one of the first places Sam would look. Him and Aunt May spent most of their time there doing a bunch of weird things. Peter remembered once catching them practicing yoga together. YOGA! He didn't even know Nova could bend that way…

"Ok focus! Ow!" He slapped his cheeks, hitting himself with the helmet by accident. "Damn you alien bucket."

Ok, back on track here. What would be a good place? What about the kitchen? Dinner and lunch for the next day was done so they wouldn't be doing any cooking there. And Sam seemed to love the cooking so much that he might as well sleep there. But it was a good place, depending on where you put it.

"Cabinets? Nah. Too obvious." Plus if someone goes to have a snack they'll find it BEFORE Sam even finished his

damn shower.

"Fridge? Nah. Same problem as the cabinets. What about… the oven?" The helmet could sustain an intense amount of heat, an amount their oven could get nowhere near incase someone wanted to heat it up for pizza. And it was black so it wouldn't be too noticeable.

"Now, just need to get to the kitchen undetected. Eh, easy enough."

As quiet as a shadow, Peter jumped out of his bedroom window and went around the house, getting in again through the kitchen window, which was conveniently open. Well it was getting hot, even at night, and it gave him the perfect entrance spot so peter wasn't complaining.

Glancing at the people in the living room, Peter was happy to see they were all facing away from him and paying a butt load of attention on the screen in front of them. Even Danny stopped meditating to watch (guess Danny CAN stop that zen thing for a few minutes to enjoy the wonderful world of digital entertainment once in a while).

"Ok now, in you go you big black Nova bucket." Peter chuckled as he closed the oven. Stepping back to look at his handiwork, he was satisfied to see that you couldn't see a hint of the helmet in the darkness of the oven, even with the light coming through the living room.

"Now, to enjoy tv and a bit of good old fashioned panicky Nova." He muttered to himself, walking to the living room and sitting on the ground next to Danny, who held one of the popcorn bowls.

"Hey guys, wha-"

"Shuuush!" They all said, with their index fingers in front of them at the same time as well. Talk about group coordination.

Looking at the screen, Peter found out what had everyone so glued to the screen. They were having an Aliens

Marathon! Well, nothing like black monsters of stealth and death killing people to bring out the family spirit of movie night.

Luke was making a comment about the half-human/half-alien xenomorph when they heard screaming coming from upstairs. They tried to ignore it and continue with the movie but with the screams, came sounds of someone throwing things around and running.

Ava sighed, mumbling something about idiot boys under her breath and paused the movie. Peter was struggling to keep from laughing. Took Sam long enough to figure out something was missing. Fortunately everyone was too occupied trying to figure out why there seemed to be a madman in the upstairs level of the house to notice.

Suddenly, Sam came downstairs (practically flying) in only his boxers and a towel on his head, his body still dripping wet. His hair was glued to his face and droplets of water were falling down from his head to his face and chest. He had the most desperate and panicked face you could imagine.

"Where is it! Where did you guys put it?! This is definitely NOT funny!" Sam yelled as soon as he came face to face with the team sitting on the living room.

Everyone couldn't help but laugh at Sam's figure. Even Aunt May laughed a little at Nova's expense. This, of course, only made him more annoyed and angry.

"Guys! Knock it off and give it back to me!"

"Give what back?" Ava asked between laughs.

"Don't play dumb with me! You know what!"

"Hey now, knock it off Sam. You're making a scene in front of Aunt May." Peter said, trying to sound serious even though laugher was easily noted in his voice.

"You! I bet it was you!" Sam ran up to Peter and got a hold of his t-shirt. "Give it back!"

"Sam, calm down. Tell us what is missing so that we can help you find it." Said Danny.

"My helmet is missing."

That got everyone's attention (though the team for different reasons, Aunt May was still in the dark about the team's true extracurricular activities). The laugher receded but didn't completely go away.

"Man you probably just forgot where you put it." Luke said, crossing his arms and giving Sam a _'you're an idiot'_ look.

"No, I've looked everywhere! And even so, I couldn't have lost it. I took it with me to the shower. It was sitting right on top of my clothes!"

Sam ignored the looks of both surprise and _'why would you even do that'_ he got and continued.

"It didn't just sprout legs and walked out of the room!"

Peter was about to make a comment on how it could have gotten tired of his stink and flew off before Aunt May intervened.

"Now now, calm down Sam. We're going to help you find your helmet. Is it the black one you always carry with you?"

Trust Aunt May to be helpful. Peter found Sam's desperations amusing but he was starting to wonder if this was all worth it. He had rarely seen Nova so panicked. But he still wanted to see what was going to happen so he didn't come clean. Plus, sticking his neck out was only going to make everything worse for himself.

"Yes. The one with the red star on the front. Oh man I can't lose it!"

"Well, why don't you go… um get dressed and we'll start searching for it."

Sam had the decency to blush as he remembered the state he had entered the room in. He had remembered to at least put on his boxers before marching onto the room. Not that Peter himself would have complained except for the fact that his Aunt may (and Ava but she would probably just kick Sam out the window before he could even say "Buckets!") was there and there had no need for her to be exposed to a teenage boy's privates, especially Nova's.

"Oh…" He said while looking down, pulling the towel down to cover his red face. "Y-Yeah. I'll be r-right back." And with that he was gone.

"I wonder what could have happened to Sam's helmet. It's not like him to lose it. He always keeps it as close to him as possible, I can't think of a reason why he would let it out of his sight." Aunt May said. She had her right hand on her chin, her face had that classic detective look on right now.

Ava sighed and got up begrudgingly.

"Great. More work. And not even MY work."

"And right on the good part too." Luke muttered as he looked at the screen, the alien queen and the hybrid alien on it. With a big pause icon on the center. What a wrong image to have on an aliens movie marathon.

"Let us search quickly. The faster we start, the faster we can go back to the movie." Danny tried to cheer them up.

"That's the spirit." Aunt May cheered. She looked back at Peter who hadn't said a word yet. "Peter, you're so quiet honey. You didn't happen to have anything to do with Sam's helmet disappearing did you?" She asked with a snippet of suspicion on her face.

Peter smiled and put his hands up to shoulder height.

"Hey, don't look at me. It's not my fault Sam can't take care of his own things."

"Says the guy who regularly loses his comic books even though they don't even leave his room." Ava says unimpressed.

"Hey, I keep telling you someone is taking them!"

"Yeah yeah. Let's just find that idiot's helmet so we can go back to the movie." Luke was the first one to move, moving to the door. "I'm going to check outside."

Aunt May walked to the door leading to the basement.

"I'll check the basement. Maybe he left it there during our last yoga session."

Peter got goosebumps remembering last time he caught them on a yoga session. He knew he could probably do most (if not all) of those moves but there was only so much he could fake until his (now) natural balance and flexibility started showing.

And the less Aunt May knew of his true abilities the better. Plus, it would probably be too _distracting_ to even be in the same room for long with them. Well, Nova. He'd be dead before he even thought of being there to see his aunt's yoga moves. He still wondered what Sam got out of all those activities they all did together. Not that Peter gave it that much thought. Except for Sam's cooking. That he couldn't deny was something he enjoyed. Eating. Delicious precious tasty food.

Ava pushed a finger against Peter's forehead, bringing him back from his thoughts.

"Hey, enough with the creepy dreamy look and on with the searching. You stay here and search. I'll go to the bedrooms and Danny, you go check the attic." She said with the most demanding voice Peter had heard her utter. Man she must REALLY want to continue with the movie. Not that Peter could blame her, they WERE in the middle of one of the biggest parts of the movie.

"Yes ma'am." Peter said mockingly and "searched" through the living room and dining room. He knew he wouldn't find anything but he had to make it at least slightly believable.

After a few minutes, Sam came running downstairs. He looked distraught and Peter was starting to think this whole prank had maybe not really been his most brilliant idea.

"Anything?" Sam asked.

"Nothing so far."

Sam, if possible, looked even more desperate and ran into the basement. He didn't take long, just a few seconds before he came back out again and ran outside.

"Wait Sam! You just showered, you're going to catch a cold if you go outside!" Aunt May yelled from the basement but Peter doubted Sam heard or even cared about that now.

The team was back on the living room and Sam was moving from one side to another, his fists shaking beside him.

"I can't believe we can't find it. You sure you didn't leave it someplace "else"?" Ava asked.

They all knew what Ava meant. Sam shook his head.

"No, I had it with me until my shower. **Someone** must have took it." And with that Sam turned to glare briefly at Peter.

Everyone looked back at Peter as well.

"What? I didn't do anything. Besides, I'm sure you'll find it in a sec, do you have some sort of tracker on it?"

"Do you think I would be here without my helmet if I had something like that?!" Sam exclaimed.

"I'm sure you'll find it soon enough dear." Aunt May put a hand reassuringly on Sam's shoulder.

Sam sighed, shoulders sagging down.

"Hey, did anyone search the kitchen yet?" Luke asked.

Sam's head made a pop sound from how fast he pulled it up. He ran over there and started opening every single door there and looking through every gap that look remotely big enough to hold his helmet.

When, at the lack of anymore choices, he opened the oven he froze. He'd never seen anyone hug a helmet with as much spirit as Sam was showing now.

"Well, I'm glad you found it. It's a mystery how it ended up there…" Aunt May said, giving another glance in Peter's direction, who just shrugged his shoulders and gave her and uneasy smile. "I think I'll go lie down now. All this excitement got me tired and I'm going hiking this weekend. I'm going to need all the energy I can get! Have a good movie night guys!" She waved at them and got up to her bedroom.

Before anyone could say anything, Sam put on his helmet and, after a brief flash of blue light, he appeared in his suit. Then his lenses glowed brightly and he stood there, as if watching something. From the look on his face, Peter didn't think it was anything good. Good for Peter he meant.

To make his point true (how he hated when he was right sometimes) Nova started to glow even brighter and moved with lighting speed to Peter and pushed him up in the air with both hands.

"You…" Sam glared at Peter.

"Uh… trying to make us blind there… Sam…?" He had to admit, even that was weak but Sam didn't seem to be in a very friendly mood at the moment.

His teammates were talking and (Peter hoped) tried to calm down Nova. The last thing Peter needed was a burn from Nova in the form of a spider-ham.

They stood in that position for quite a long time before Nova let him go. He pointed a glowing finger at Peter's face.

"You do ANYTHING like this again and you'll be sorry you even thought of it in the first place Peter." And with that, Sam took off, to where Peter didn't know.


	2. Games aren't always fun

Sam had come back to the house a few days after the incident. Peter only knew this because of the noise Sam kept making as he came into their bedroom and went to sleep on his mattress on the floor at the foot of Peter's bed. Peter didn't even know if Sam was allowed to leave for such a long period of time but it wouldn't be the first time it happened so he didn't ask.

He thought it was better not to say anything and just pretend to be asleep. He didn't know if Sam would blow up on him again, so he decided to play it safe and just deal with it in the morning

The next few days were tense for everyone. Sam ignored or badmouthed everyone that tried to talk to him. Even Aunt May mentioned that Sam seemed a bit cold and tense when they did activities together. Needless to say the house wasn't a very peaceful place at the moment.

Things were even worse when they got together for training. Since the helicarrier's destruction, they had been training in special rooms in one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s underground warehouses and it wasn't going well. White Tiger, Iron Fist and Power Man tried their best to fill in the holes Spider-Man and Nova were making with their fighting but this also decreased their performance.

This did not go unnoticed by both Coulson and Fury.

And with that came punishment. They were given harsher training sessions to force them to work together and it worked, to an extent. But the team was still tense and Nova was still reluctant to work together with Spider-Man. Peter wasn't happy that the team was suffering because of something **he** did so he did what any leader should. He tried to relieve the tension and get everything back to normal.

When Sam had calmed down (according to Aunt May, the only person Sam wouldn't "attack") Peter decided to execute his plan.

It was another wonderful training session, on the worst part of the week. Weekend. A small mercy had been granted when Coulson said they were taking it easy today for… whatever reason. Peter had stopped listening at that point.

The training was the basic destroy the robots and try not to get zapped in the ass. Perfect for what Peter had in mind. When they destroyed the last robot, Spider-Man got on top of it and got the team's attention.

"Hey guys! I have an idea for a new training session!"

Everyone got closer to hear what the idea was. Even Sam seemed a little curious.

"Instead of just destroying the robots, how about we play a game as well?"

White Tiger sighed.

"Are you sure this is the right time to play a **game**? We're in the middle of training." White Tiger said.

"And that's exactly why we need a game. Since we're forced to be here on a WEEKEND, we might as well get some fun out of it." He said it extra loud for Fury and Coulson to hear. Damn weekend ruiners. He could be sleeping his third sleep if it wasn't for them.

"Ok, what do you have in mind?" Power Man came forward, looking more excited at the prospect of having some fun.

"I was thinking of adding some challenge to usual training. Say… we each try to take away an item a teammate is carrying, in addition to dealing with the robots. Can be anything, a glove or a mask or even a shoe. AND-" He said before any of them started speaking, "-the last person who can't take anything from any of the team has to do ALL the chores at Aunt May's house for a week." He put his fists to his side and looked proudly at his team.

White Tiger put a hand on her chin, thinking about Spider-Man's idea.

"That… actually sounds like it'd be kinda fun. And having one of you idiots do my chores for a week will help make more time for my studies."

"Looks like even you can come up with some good ideas sometimes Spider-Man" Power Man laughed and slapped a hand on Spider-Man's shoulder in agreement.

"That does seem like a good idea for a bit of friendly competition. It will make us improve our weaknesses. We cannot always rely on the team while on the field and this provides us an excellent opportunity to work on those weaknesses." Iron Fist seemed happy about Spider-Man's idea to spice up the training session.

Spider-Man was happy the team liked his idea (even though some of them had different reasons to like it). Nova hadn't voiced his opinion. He simply frowned and flew up to wait for the next part of training to start but he didn't complain, so Spider-Man assumed he had nothing against it.

They all distanced themselves from each other and waited for the hissing noise of the doors opening to let the robots through to begin Spider-Man's game. And they didn't have to wait long. Just a few seconds after they got into position, the doors hissed open to reveal more robots coming for them.

"Ready? GO!" Peter yelled as the robots fired their first shots.

White Tiger was the first to jump at a teammate. Jumping and dodging past the robots, she lunged for Power Man, aiming for his glasses while he was distracted with a robot that had jumped on his back. Iron Fist took advantage of this and ran after White Tiger, planning on getting to Power Man before her or getting to her before she realized he was there. Whichever scenario came first.

Spider-Man was jumping around on the robot's heads, taking care to avoid getting hit. He ran after Nova, who was circling around the room with 7 flying mini disks chasing him.

Chasing after Nova wasn't easy. Sure he was flying much slower than he could but he was still fast and Spider-Man was doing his best to keep up with him. He had to admit though, this had been a pretty good idea. The exhilarating feeling of running and swinging his webs at the fastest speed he could while trying to dodge the several attacks aimed at him was amazing. Feeling the wind on his face would be even better but that was something he could do very little. Maybe he could talk to Fury about an open-air training session. Preferably in a safe place. The last thing any of them needed was for their identities to be discovered due to carelessness.

But those were thoughts for another time. Now was Nova catching time.

Nova stopped every few seconds to aim and blast the mini disks away, giving Spider-Man the time to catch up to him. Just as Nova destroyed one of the remaining two, he managed to jump on Nova's back and, to his relief, not fall off or miss.

"Wha- Hey!" Nova yelled.

The surprise of the new weight on him made him waver in his flight and nearly crash into a pillar. Just before they would have hit the pillar, Nova made a sharp turn and maneuvered himself around it. Spider-Man hugged him from behind on instinct, to avoid falling off.

He felt heat radiating from Nova's suit as he dodged the shots from the small flying mini disk that was still chasing him. He was hotter than usual. Spider-Man tried wondering why his temperature had changed so drastically but Nova's sharp turns to avoid the mini disk and get him off his back kept his thoughts on standby and he had to concentrate all his energy on simply not falling off.

He had his hands around Nova's neck and his legs around his waist. They were firmly secured. The same could not be said for Spider-Man's head. With all the crazy turns Nova was making, his head was being thrown around like a ragdoll. To say he was dizzy would be an understatement.

He could sometimes make out the shape of his other teammates battling the robots and trying to snatch something from each other. They seemed to be having fun. More fun than his stomach was having at least. How did Nova managed to stay sane he didn't know.

It was when he felt a hand brush against his own that he remembered why he had gotten on top of Nova in the first place. He quickly took his hand away and went to grab Nova's helmet when the mini disk started shooting at them again. Nova turned around and shot it straight in the center, making it explode. Spider-Man took advantage of this to grab Nova's chin and shoulder to push them to a part of the room with no robots.

Nova protested but Spider-Man was in a more advantageous position and managed to steer Nova and not crash into any pillars. As soon as they were in an arguably safe area, Spider-Man put his hands around Nova's helmet and tried prying it off. Nova screamed and flew around making sharp turns and erratic movements, like a wild horse being mounted for the first. Spider-Man would have laughed at the comparison if he wasn't trying not to fall and get to the helmet at the same time.

At some point Nova managed to take Spider-Man off his back but his teammate was clever and merely balanced himself to Nova's front and got his hands around his helmet, his feet against Nova's stomach and pushing. Removing the helmet by force required more work than Spider-Man had thought it would. Nova always seemed to take it off with ease.

"Come off you stupid alien bucket!" Spider-Man yelled, frustration growing on his voice.

Nova didn't reply. Instead his grabbed Spider-Man's feet and heated up his hands.

"Wha- What are you doing?! Ouch! Stop it!" The heat was increasing, or it seemed to, with each passing second. This gave Spider-Man a new found urgency, causing him to push even harder.

"NO!" Sam screamed.

Suddenly Spider-Man felt his hands moving again. He looked at them and saw the Nova helmet in his hands. But before he could do a victory dance they were both falling. Thanking his quick reflexes, he propelled himself towards the wall, using Nova as a support.

Nova, on the other hand, continued falling towards the ground. Without his helmet, all his powers faded away. In the few seconds that took him to hit the ground, he saw his suit disappear into thin air, starting on his hands and feet and ending on his eyes. He landed on the ground with a thud, hitting his back first and then his head. He stayed there lying with a pained expression until Spider-Man came down from the wall and the team came back, each holding a piece of the other's armor in the hands.

"Guess who will have a chore-free week? Oh yeah that's right, me." White Tiger was excited with her victory, wearing Power man's sunglasses and striking a pose.

"You're not the only one Tiger." Power Man laughed at White Tiger's pose and started twirling Iron Fist's mask with his finger.

"I still think you we all need more practice. I was only able to snatch these." Despite his words, Iron Fist proudly presented one of Power Man's shoes and one of White Tiger's gloves.

Both White Tiger and Power Man gave a weak glare in his direction.

"That's cute guys, but check what I-"

"Sam!" Power Man interrupted him and ran towards Sam.

Spider-Man was about to complain when he looked at Sam, who was still on the ground.

"What happened?!" White Tiger looked in Spider-Man's direction, a glare on her masked face.

"Uh... well..." He just showed them the helmet, light shining on its immaculate black frame.

"You took off his helmet?! Mid-flight?!" White Tiger pushed the sunglasses up to her head and helped Sam get up to his feet.

"Uh..." Was his intelligent reply.

"Urgh, give me that!" She snatched the helmet from his hands and gave it to Sam.

No one said a thing as Sam put on the Nova helmet. A brilliant blue light surrounded him and then there he was in his uniform. He lowly moved his body to make sure the suit was him healing properly. When he was satisfied, he walked up to Spider-Man and took off his mask, glaring directly in his eyes. Peter couldn't see Nova's eyes through the glowing blue eye sockets of the helmet but he could tell he was pissed.

"You didn't have enough fun with my helmet that you had to take it again?! While I'm up in the air too? What is wrong with you Parker?!" Nova fumed.

"Hey I'm sorry about the mid-air thing but I was just playing the game. I had to take something from you." He tried defending himself.

"And it had to be the helmet right? Did your game included giving me a concussion too?"

"Hey, I said I was sorry already! I didn't do it on purpose! It was an accident."

"You really don't think, do you Parker? I'm surprised this city is still intact with you _protecting_ it!"

Spider-Man stopped in his tracks at those words. They all knew how hard Spider-Man pushed himself to protect those in need and no one took it harder than him when they made a mistake. Everyone on the team knew this. Spider-Man then remembered his uncle then. His first mistake. Remembering him sobered Peter up in a heartbeat.

"Nova, you're going too far. It was an accident." White Tiger turned to him.

"Answering pain with more pain is never the answer, Nova." Iron Fist put a hand on Nova's shoulder to try and calm him but he took it away in an instant when he felt his teammate's suit burning hot.

"Oh believe me, sometimes it **is** the answer." Nova glared at Iron Fist but didn't linger, turning his gaze upon Spider-Man again. "I don't know what I did to have you picking on me all the time now but if getting me angry was your goal then congratulations, you've succeeded!"

And with that, Nova flew away from the room. The team ran after him back to the surface. They got there just in time to see Nova accelerate towards the skies.

"You just had to do it again, didn't you?" White Tiger reprimanded him.

Spider-Man sighed in defeat and rubbed his forehead. The day had **not** gone the way he wanted at all. Granted making Sam fall mid-flight hadn't been the best thing to do but he really hadn't meant for it to happen. He forgot Sam couldn't fly without it and it was the easiest looking thing to get off of him for the game.

But White Tiger was right. He was just screwing it with Nova all the time. He didn't even know how he was doing it so often. The helmet incidents were only the biggest ones. Throughout the week, he and Sam had fought more times than usual, and not all of it was friendly.

"I'm going to patrol the city." He said before swinging away from the compound.

He didn't know if the rest of the team was following him but he hoped not. He wanted to be alone.

He patrolled the city like he said he would but there wasn't much going on and, if he was honest with himself, he really wasn't in the mood for it. He stopped at the rooftop of an abandoned building in the outskirts of the city and sat on the edge. With the sky now darkening, he could see the stars starting to show between the clouds and the city lighting up. It was a beautiful sight. Except Peter wasn't in the right mind to enjoy it.

This whole week had been hell. Bad blood between him and Sam was affecting the team and causing them to make mistakes while fighting criminals, training was going worse and the situation at home was… tense to say the least.

"I don't know why he made such a big deal out of that prank. It's just a bucket helmet!" He sighed and looked up. It wasn't like Peter had meant any harm by it. He just wanted to prank Sam. But he never imagined Sam would have reacted the way he did.

He spent a few more minutes in the rooftop complaining inside his own mind before getting up and moving back into the city to patrol again. He still had a job to do.


	3. An apology

"You have to apologize to him."

Peter groaned. The team had been pestering him on something he already knew. He **was** planning on apologizing to Sam. Just… at the right moment.

Sam had been away for a couple of hours and was back at the house by the time they had finished patrolling. He was in the kitchen with Aunt May talking and preparing something. Peter didn't say anything to him and went to the living room to watch TV with Luke until Sam bid Aunt May goodnight and went up to Peter's bedroom.

And that was when the team decided it was a good time to poke Peter and make him apologize to Sam. He knew he had to. He just wanted to wait a little bit to think about what he was going to say. And give Sam some space and time to calm down.

"I will. Just… give me a bit of time ok?"

Ava sighed and fell onto the couch next to Luke.

"And how long is that gonna take?" Ava lifted an eyebrow.

Peter simply put his head down and passed his hands through his hair. He was getting frustrated. Ever since they had caught up to him on patrol, they had been nagging him about making up with Nova and apologizing. He knew he had to do that but having people perched on your shoulder for hours saying the same thing over and over again was bound to drive anyone crazy, no matter how right they were.

In the end, Peter just sighed.

"Fine. Let me go take a shower and I'll talk to him."

He got a few weird looks but he ignored it.

The hot water felt good on his skin. Being out all day training and fighting bad guys, especially on a weekend, left his body tired and sore. It would heal, sure, but nothing felt better after a day's work than a hot relaxing shower.

Truthfully, he wanted to stay in the shower for as long as possible. He had to talk to Sam but he only had "I'm sorry I dropped you on your head without your bucket" going through his mind at the moment and that wasn't an option. And the team wasn't helping him one bit.

Well, soul searching for the right thing to say was proving hopeless.

"Time to face the consequences. How exciting…"

He didn't dare go into the bedroom for clothes before so he just grabbed a towel from the bathroom cupboard and tied it around his waist, taking another one to dry his hair with on the way. He grabbed his dirty clothes and walked to his bedroom.

Sam was lying on his mattress on the floor when Peter opened the door. A blush started showing on his cheek as he closed it and walked around Sam to his closet. The towel around his waist wasn't very long and Sam was as close to the ground as the mattress let him. Peter tried not giving it much thought. They were both guys and this was his room anyway.

With his back towards Sam, Peter dried himself with the towel on his head as fast as he could. Sparing only a glance towards the content of his closet before picking out underwear, socks, shorts and a t-shirt. He wasn't planning on leaving the house tonight so he didn't care much for what he was going to wear. And if Spider-Man was needed, he would just wear his suit, not his casual clothes.

With the towel once again on his head, Peter turned to look at Sam. His teammate was lying on his back with an arm under his head and a comic book on his face. Sam had been reading it when he came into the room just a few minutes ago. Somehow Peter seemed both relieved and offended that Sam had stopped reading it and put it on his face; but he told himself not to dwell much on it. He had an apology to make.

So, he took a deep breath and sat on Sam's mattress, next to him.

"Sam. I need to talk to you." He said, hesitantly.

Sam's free hand lowered the comic book from his face and he looked at Peter, his expression strangely blank. Strange; Peter thought he would be still glaring at Peter.

"I…" He sucked in another big breath, "I wanted to… apologize for what happened earlier. And before too. With your helmet."

Sam didn't say anything. He didn't even change his expression. Not even a hair moved on his face. He just blinked and stared at Peter's face. Which made Peter continue speaking. He didn't know if it would do him more good than bad but he had a feeling he needed to say more.

"With the prank… I just wanted to play a little joke on you." At this Sam glared at him. "I didn't know your helmet was such a big deal for you. I honestly didn't mean any harm. I just wanted to…" Peter sighed and passed his hand through his still wet hair. The motion made the towel fall on his shoulders.

Sam's expression had loosened. He stopped glaring and simply followed the towel falling from Peter's head to his shoulders, then back at Peter's hair.

Suddenly, he got up and walked up to the desk. He grabbed his helmet and slipped it on. Sam was encased in a brilliant blue light for just a moment and came out of it with his full uniform on. And once again, Peter couldn't see his face very well. Those glowing eye sockets rarely made his eyes visible. Which, Peter figures, is what people felt when he himself put on his mask. At least he could still see the lower half of Sam's face; though now it didn't give him much since his face (or his mouth at least) appeared to still hold a neutral expression.

"Put your suit on. We're going out." Sam said.

"Uh…" Peter said intelligently, getting up.

"Do you want to talk or not?" Sam's mouth moved into a thin line.

Peter didn't know if he should be happy that Sam was talking or if he should be wary at the moment. For one, Sam appeared to want to talk, but then again, going out in his suit with Sam might mean he wanted to get rough… And not in the good way.

But either way, Peter moved to his closet again and stripped down to his underwear. Through the mirror on his door, he could see Sam was looking at him. A blush moved through his cheeks again and he tried to ignore it by moving fast and putting on his suit as fast as he could without looking to be in panic.

Sam moved to the window and motioned Peter to come closer.

"Grab onto me. We're flying."

"Are you sure? Couldn't I just, you know, web sling my way to wherever you want to go?"

Sam frowned, or at least his mouth looked unhappy.

"Ok, ok. I'll grab onto you."

Sam moved behind Peter and grabbed hold of his chest. Before Peter could prepare, they were suddenly in the air. Looking down, he saw the buildings of his neighborhood getting smaller and smaller. A blue trail of light could be seen just behind them.

It didn't take long before they reached their destination. The torch of the Statue of Liberty. As good a place for a private conversation as any, Peter guessed. Sam let him down and got on the ground as well, the blue glow dissipating from his body.

"Last time I was here, the police tried to shoot me for being on this dude's shoulders." Sam looked up at the statue's head.

"The Statue of Liberty is a Lady Liberty, Sam. Not a dude."

Sam tilted his head to the side, still watching the statue's sculpted face.

"Nah. Still don't see it."

Peter gave a nervous laugh. He felt a little cold being out at night in just his Spider-Man suit right after taking a shower. But there was nothing they could do now. And Peter could suffer a little cold if that meant they could talk and be friends again.

Sam sighed and moved to sit in front of Peter, back against one of the vertical supports of the giant torch. Peter dropped down on to the floor as well, sitting in front of Nova. He took off his mask and ruffled his hair, trying to make it stop sticking to his face. The mask made his damp hair stick to his head in an uncomfortable way.

When he deemed his hair's condition less annoying, he turned to look at Sam. Sam was staring at him.

"Look Sam, I… I've been an idiot lately and I'm sorry. At first I was just trying to play a prank on you like always but then I… I got carried away I guess. I'm really sorry."

Sam sighed and leaned his back against the support.

"I know. And if it was about anything else that I have I wouldn't say a thing. Heck, you could have taken my underwear and I wouldn't have made a big fuss about it. But… this helmet isn't just something that gives me power. It's…" Sam took the helmet off and held it in front of him.

Peter waited for Sam to continue. He had a look of both sadness and happiness on his face while staring at it.

"It's the only thing I have left from my dad…"

Peter's eyes widened. Talk about a punch on the face made of guilt. He never thought that would be the reason why Sam was so attached to his helmet.

"I'm really sorry Sam. If I'd known that I wouldn't have done any of what I did."

"I know." Sam frowned. "It's just not something I really like to talk about…"

"I get it. Believe me, I do."

Sam looked up to Peter, a sad smile on his face. He then let out a laugh and put a hand on his forehead.

"No, you really don't. I treated my dad in the worst way possible. I never believed his stories and thought he was this total loser and a drunk. My mom kept telling me to ease up on him, that I was being harsh on him. But I didn't care. And now he's gone." He shook his head and looked back at the helmet.

"I treated him horribly, right up until the day he left."

"Is he…?" Peter didn't know if he should ask.

"He's alive. Just…" Sam sighed. "Missing. In space."

"But if you know he's alive can't you find him? And how do you know he's alive?" Peter didn't know if it was the best question to ask about the subject but his curiosity got the best of him.

"The Watcher told me he was alive." Sam's face got darker.

"You… spoke to the Watcher?"

"Yeah. He was my friend and was the only person I could really talk to. Not… that he spoke back a lot. Or ever really. But he always seemed to like me visiting. And he told me about incoming cosmic dangers and stuff so I went there a lot."

"Cool! Then why don't you go ask him where your dad is?" Peter asked, with a glimmer of hope in his eye.

Sam dropped the helmet on his lap and stared up to the stars. Without the helmet on, his uniform disappeared and left him in his civilian clothes. Peter could see goosebumps start to appear on his exposed forearms. Sam was wearing only a t-shirt, jeans and tennis shoes, obviously not thinking about leaving the house again. Even if it was summer, it could still get quite chilly after the sun went down.

Sam rubbed his arms with his hands momentarily and brought his knees up to his chest and hugged them, resting his head on his knees and leaving the helmet on the ground facing him.

"The Watcher is dead. Killed. I found his body last time I went to visit." His eyes were wet.

Peter felt sorry for Sam. He knew what it was like to have a good friend die, after all, his uncle Ben was nothing if not a big friend to Peter. He got up and moved to sit down next to Sam. He put an arm around Sam's shoulder and started rubbing his shoulder, hoping to be comforting him.

Sam looked up at Peter but didn't say anything. He just sighed and leaned into Peter's shoulder.

"My friend is dead and with him my best chance of finding my dad. I don't even know if what the Watcher told me is still true..."

"What do you mean?" Peter asked.

"The last time I saw the Watcher alive I was 15. I'm 17 now. You do the math, genius." Sam's voice had a bitter and tired tone to it.

"I'm… so sorry Sam. But then why are you here? Couldn't you go out there and look for your dad?"

Sam let out a humorless laugh.

"I did for a while. That was mostly why I joined up with the Guardians of the Galaxy. They trained me while I was there of course but their job was too dangerous for an inexperienced kid like me who didn't even know a third of what he could do at the time. Plus, the universe is too big to start searching without a clue where you're supposed to look. That's the reason I accepted Fury's offer to join this program. It's helping me be a better superhero but… it's not helping me the way I hoped it would. I still don't know the extent of what I can do and I still don't have a clue where my dad is."

"Then why are you still here? Why not go with the Guardians of the Galaxy? I mean, they're in space, they'd probably find something about your dad faster right? Plus, you actually know what you're doing now so, why not?"

Sam sighed.

"Because S.H.I.E.L.D. has a bigger network of contacts. I asked Fury to keep an eye out for any intel regarding my dad. Even just a wiff of him. Anything. And the Guardians told me they'd send word if they found out anything. And when they do have something, I go check it out… which always just ends up being nothing."

Peter put his hand on Sam's head and ran his fingers through his black hair.

"Is that what you do when you disappear for days at a time?"

After a moment of hesitation, Sam answered.

"Yeah. I know the team is important and that we all made a commitment but I-"

"Hey." Peter held Sam's head and turned it so they were looking at each other. "There's no way I'm letting you say sorry. If I knew about this and you were reluctant to go, I'd sling you off to space myself."

Sam chuckled and smiled. Peter was happy Sam finally seemed to show him his smile again.

"I'm sorry I've been giving you all this trouble… I really am Sam. And I promise, if you ever need help to look for your dad, I'm here for you."

Sam laughed again.

"Oh yeah? How are you going to help me? By freezing and suffocating in space and giving me something to laugh at?"

Peter chuckled and lifted his face to the sky, a cocky expression plastered on his face.

"Why, my dear friend, of course not. I will 'borrow' one of the S.H.I.E.L.D. ships and chase after you."

"Yeah right, like you'd be able to keep up."

"I'd still go if you needed me."

Sam stared at Peter's eyes, as if trying to guess if he was saying the truth. Then he looked down and smiled. Peter smiled as well.

"So, what do you say we go back home? I'm sure they're all wondering why the house is still standing and if they'll find my body parts scattered all over New York tomorrow."

"Yeah, especially if they don't hear anything from our room soon." At Peter's curious glance, Sam rolled his eyes "I know they pushed you into talking to me tonight. They were probably eager to eavesdrop on us through the door. Which is why I wanted to come here to talk. More privacy."

Peter nodded. He didn't doubt Sam's words in the least. It was hard to have privacy in a house filled with teenagers. Especially when those teenagers were as nosy as his team.

Sam pulled his black helmet over his face and blue light surrounded him yet again. But this time, it wasn't as bright as usual. Seemed like Sam was letting the process go on slower than usual, letting Peter see the Nova uniform appear slowly and wrap itself around Sam's body. Peter had to admit, the whole thing was pretty cool.

Putting his mask back on, Peter put his hand on Sam's back.

"Come on, show-off. Let's get home. Unlike you, I just took a shower and went out into the cold. I'll probably come down with a cold by tomorrow because of you."

"Yeah well, I didn't exactly force you to come along." Sam grabbed Peter by the chest again and took off, careful not to go too fast and make Peter go through stronger and colder air currents.

"Hey, doesn't that helmet have some sort of life support system? Does it work on colds?"

Sam looks down for a second.

"It does but I wouldn't rly put it on if I were you. Unless of course you're somehow related to my dad, which I highly doubt."

"Why?" Peter lifted and eyebrow at Sam's statement, even if he couldn't see it because of the mask.

"The helmet is designed to work only for my dad and his DNA signature. Meaning only him and his bloodline can use it."

"And if someone else puts it on? What happens to them?"

"Dunno. There hasn't been anyone dumb enough to try yet. Nothing could happen. Or you could die. I really have no idea."

"Well… You just made sure I NEVER try that helmet on."

**Sam really does think the Statue of Liberty is male. I'm not joking. Just check the comic issue Nova # 007**

**Sure he's 2 years older now but I like the idea of him sticking to the belief the statue is male, despite everyone saying otherwise.**

**SPOILER ALERT - SPOILER ALERT**

**The Spider-Man Nova meets in that issue is the Superior Spider-Man, meaning it's not Peter Parker but Doctor Octopus in Peter's body. Check out the recent adventures of Spider-Man to know why and how. (This is in Earth-616, the main universe)**


End file.
